Many media entertainment systems provide electronic program guides (EPGS) that allow users to interactively select programs in which they are interested. FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art electronic program guide grid. The prior art EPG grid 100 displays program titles arranged in a grid that associates each program title with a broadcast channel 102 and a broadcast time 104. Each program is represented by a cell in the grid and the size of each cell indicates the duration of the program. For example, cell 106 represents the one hour program titled, “General Hospital,” which is scheduled for broadcast on channel 4 beginning at 2:00 pm and ending at 3:00 pm. Cell 108 is smaller than cell 106 because it represents the one-half hour program titled, “Garfield,” which is scheduled for broadcast on channel 3 beginning at 2:30 pm and ending at 3:00 pm.
With the prior art EPG grid 100, it can be difficult for a television viewer to determine programs they may be interested in watching. Typically, the EPG grid 100 displays only 2-3 hours of the broadcast schedule (horizontally) for approximately 15-20 channels (vertically) at one time. To see additional portions of the schedule, either more channels or more times, the television viewer must scroll through the EPG grid, horizontally and/or vertically. For example, a television viewer may have three hours in the evening during which he or she is available to watch television. The television viewer may spend a significant amount of that time scrolling through an EPG grid 100 trying to locate one or more programs of interest that are being broadcast during that time period on all of the available channels.
Also, because the cells of the EPG grid vary in size based on the duration of the represented television program, it is difficult for a viewer to quickly determine television programs that are scheduled for broadcast during a particular time of day, for example, prime time. In the EPG grid 100, programs of the same duration that have the same start time are aligned, but programs with different durations and/or different start times are not aligned in a single column.
Additionally, a viewer may choose to plan an entire week's worth of television viewing at a single sitting. For example, if the viewer has a digital video recorder, he or she may wish to schedule several programs to be recorded throughout the week to be viewed at the viewer's convenience. The prior art EPG grid 100 is a very cumbersome tool for this purpose.